


Always Something New

by Joomju



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Culture Shock, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-03 22:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14006067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joomju/pseuds/Joomju
Summary: This is a direct sequel to Shell-Shocked by russomaha. https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206105





	Always Something New

**Author's Note:**

  * For [russomaha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/russomaha/gifts).



> This is a direct sequel to Shell-Shocked by russomaha. https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206105

The thing about being a tersie in space is that all the infrastructure, which everyone around you takes for granted, is new and exciting. Airlocks and orbital transition procedures, grav-boots and restrooms for a plethora of species, it's all weird and exhilarating. Jupiter wants to point and stare like a toddler, but she forces her face into a bland boredom when faced with someone she needs to impress. Imagine being 30 years old and never having seen an elevator before! So embarrassing. 

Fortunately, being Queen, someone else usually opens the airlock for her or helps her with her safety buckles. She watches closely, and tries to fumble through doing it herself now and again. It doesn't always go well. Today she misjudged a step - the steps are all slightly off from the American building code standard - which resulted in her landing flat on her hands on pavement. She's up quickly, brushing them off, wincing at the pain. The skin is broken, and some dirt stuck inside.

"Are you alright, Majesty?" Newbie Guard asks. After about a month running around with Stinger and Cain, Jupiter had hired an actual security staff. It meant Stinger and Cain got to have something closer to normal working hours and time off. It also meant an influx of guards whose names she hadn't figured out yet. This one had a stolid, unyielding presence that reminded her of a rhino or a hippo. She didn't want to ask, in case the question itself was offensive. 

"I'm alright, thanks," Jupiter says. "Though I could use some disinfectant, if you have any."

The guard grabs her hands in his, checking them over. Jupiter has a flashback to a different guard, a different injury, a different day. Is he going to lick her? Does she want him to lick her? She doesn't even know his name. What's normal here? Her heart rate spikes with anxiety.

"It's nothing to worry about, Majesty," the guard says, misjudging the reason for her increased pulse. She always forgets they can tell. He pulls out a tool from - where did he get that from? He isn't wearing pockets. He tells her the name of it, but it's an unintelligible jumble to her. "It will pull out any debris that is still in the wound." He waves the glowing blue stick over her hands, and the dirt flies up and sticks to the thing. It looks like something out of Star Trek. "And this is a disinfectant spray," he continues, magicking a small spray bottle into his hands. 

There's clearly going to be no licking today. Her heart rate calms. 

The guard narrates what he's doing as he pulls out some kind of band-aid that dissolves in about 15 seconds and leaves her with healthy looking skin. "Your nerve endings should integrate with the new skin over the course of the next day. If the itching bothers you, I would recommend a sleep aid tonight." His voice is calm, soothing, without condescending to her like a child. Where does Stinger find these people? Where does a soldier and bodyguard pick up people skills? Is it socially accepted for her to ask him that? What's normal here?

"Remind me never to play poker with you," Jupiter says. 

"Majesty?" 

"I have no idea where you were keeping all of that," she gestures at the hand that was holding the bandaid wrapper half a second ago, "...stuff. You could have cards up your sleeves and I wouldn't know. And thank you. I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name."

"Rhin Keros, at your service, Majesty." He gestures for her to continue on her way, and falls into step with her as they navigate the Promenade. "This is all part of the standard kit any of your guards would have on them. Would you like an inventory of all the rest?" 

He spends the rest of their journey giving her an inventory, and Jupiter spends the trip incredibly distracted. Half the terms he's throwing at her are completely foreign to her, and she jots down notes in her comm so she can look them up later. There's some kind of drone/mechanical balloon floating over a shop, and she wants to take a picture but no one's paying it any mind and she'd look like a weirdo if she stopped. Plus she has to watch the damn steps, which are all just-slightly-off American building code standard. And then they're at her bank and she needs to pull out her sheaves of notes she made on the different investment vehicles that Seraphi was using and where she'd like to make changes. 

Later, in the early hours of the morning, she stares at her ceiling and realizes that Cain didn't have to lick her foot. He did it purely because he wanted to. She rolls over and muffles a high pitched squeal of delight into her pillow.


End file.
